Participants at Hearings Debate Need For National Measures in Child Care

Washington--Senator Alphonse M. D'Amato, Republican of New York, and
Representative Mario Biaggi, Democrat of New York, have introduced a
child-protection bill that would establish a nationwide
employee-screening mechanism for all child-care facilities.

But national child-care experts who testified on the bill last week
said parent- and child-awareness programs are more effective and
important in efforts to prevent child abuse. And the National Education
Association last week unveiled a multimedia teacher-training program to
help teachers detect and report suspected child abuse.

Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and chairman of
the Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, introduced the
hearings on the connection between child abuse and child care by noting
the current condition of child-care services in the United States.

"During the past year, we have learned that the child-care system is
diverse, haphazardly regulated, and inadequately supportive of either
those who provide the care or the families who use it," he said.

"I think I can speak for my colleagues and my constituents when I
say that we are shocked and angered by [recent reports of] tragic
incidents," he said. "They apparently know no geographic bounds and are
not particular to any one type of child-care setting."

Problem of National Scope

Calling sexual abuse of children "a problem of national scope [that]
we as a nation can no longer ignore," Representative Biaggi noted that
"current law only requires that day-care centers meet state and local
standards. Unfortunately, these standards vary greatly from state to
state and are insufficient to prevent the tragedies that have prompted
Senator D'Amato and me to introduce this legislation."

Congressman Biaggi's bill--HR 6207, the national child-protection
act--would set up a nationwide screening system to apply to all
child-care services in all states, regardless of whether they receive
federal funds. Those states that do receive funds for child-care
services under Title XX of the Social Security Act must, under the act,
require that no day-care provider be licensed if the provider or any
employee has been convicted of child abuse, child molestation, or a
similar act.

"It is clear that there is a need for federal guidelines and minimum
standards in this area," Congressman Biaggi said.

The bill also calls for the establishment of an advisory panel on
child protection, which would be made up of members appointed by the
President and the Congress to advise the Secretary of Health and Human
Services on standards and guidelines for day-care centers.

Approach Questioned

But several representatives of national child-advocacy
organizations, while noting that increasing federal funds for day-care
programs would be beneficial, commented that efforts to improve day
care through federal regulations or licensing checks may not be the
most useful strategies for dealing with the problem.

"I am deeply concerned about proposals to respond to the child
sexual-abuse problem by imposing employee-screening standards on
licensed day-care facilities," said Anne H. Cohn, executive director of
the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse.

Maintaining that screening day-care workers will not stop sexual
abuse, Ms. Cohn said it will instead impose "unnecessary burdens and
costs" on day-care centers while giving lawmakers, the public, and
parents a false sense of security.

She noted that there is no checklist that will identify
perpetrators, that most sexual abusers do not have criminal records
related to molestation or abuse of children, and that most preschool
children who are not in their parents' care during the day are not in
licensed day-care settings.

"The single most promising avenue to preventing sexual abuse at this
time is arming children and parents with knowledge about
self-protection of children," she said.

Community Model

Kee MacFarlane, director of the Child Sexual Abuse Diagnostic Center
of the Children's Institute International in Los Angeles, called for a
"community disaster model" for dealing with child-abuse
emergencies.

"There are no models, no plans, and virtually no experience for
dealing with this sort of attack upon our children," said Ms.
MacFarlane. She has interviewed more than 400 children alleged to have
been sexually abused by the personnel in preschools they attended.
Among them were pupils from the Virginia McMartin Preschool in
Manhattan Beach, Calif., where seven teachers have been indicted on
charges of abusing children and are being investigated for allegedly
involving some of the children in a child-pornography and prostitution
ring.

Ms. MacFarlane also described the process of investigating and
uncovering abuse in child-care centers when several adults are believed
to be involved, either within the school itself or in conjunction with
a larger ring of adults outside the school.

"What we find ourselves dealing with is no less than a
conspiracy--an organized operation of child predators designed to
prevent detection and usually well-insulated against legal intervention
once its existence is suspected," she said.

Need To Enhance Care

Several child-care advocates who testified last week said sexual
abuse in child-care centers must be viewed in the overall context of
the quality of child care.

Bettye M. Caldwell, president of the National Association for the
Education of Young Children, said the success of any solution to the
sexual-abuse problem will hinge on its ability to enhance those aspects
of child care that are known to be important.

Among those, she noted, are qualified staff members, an adequate
number of staff members, decent working conditions, and ample
opportunities for informed parent selection and observation of, and
participation in, child-care programs.

Ms. Caldwell also called on the child-care profession to continue to
monitor itself through such efforts as an accreditation initiative of
her organization that is designed to promote joint monitoring of child
care by parents and providers.

"Fingerprinting day-care providers and running criminal checks on
prospective employees may catch an incidental individual who should
never have been allowed into a child-care program," she said. "But
shortcut solutions of this nature will fail to address underlying and
far more pervasive problems," such as the low status and inadequate
training of care providers, insufficient encouragement of parental
participation, and meager resources for the implementation and
monitoring of qualitative improvements.

Added Marcy Whitebook, director of the Child Care Employee Project
in Berkeley, Calif.: "The greatest single protection against child
abuse in day care is the child-care worker. ... As the need for child
care continues to grow through the Continued on Page XX

Experts Debate National Child-Care Standards

Continued from Page 17

decade, the demand for child-care workers will soar. Now is the time to
decide who we want--not just who we don't want--to take care of our
children."

Teacher Involvement

In an effort to teach elementary- and secondary-school teachers how
to detect and report incidents of child abuse among students, the
National Education Association last week announced the completion of a
teacher-training program.

The program, called "Child Abuse and Neglect: The nea Multimedia
Training Program," was developed by Cynthia Crosson Tower, assistant
professor of behavioral sciences and coordinator of the human-services
program at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts.

The American Association of School Administrators, the National
Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Association of
Elementary School Principals, the National pta, and the National School
Boards Association also contributed to the project, which includes
filmstrips, audiotapes, and printed matter on detecting, reporting,
counseling about, and understanding child abuse.

"Teachers and other school employees are involved with child abuse
for three main reasons," said Mary H. Futrell, president of the nea
"The trauma created by abuse and neglect is as much a detriment to
learning as a perceptual or physical difficulty. Teachers are in daily
contact with children, and teachers are required by law, in all states,
to report child abuse and can be held liable for failure to do so."

She called the program, which was developed at a cost of $20,000, an
"early-warning system" to help teachers detect abuse at the earliest
possible stage.

The series, which sells for $199.95, can be ordered through the nea
at 1201 16th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

Vol. 04, Issue 04

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